Letter: People, society need healthy outlook

Saturday

Apr 15, 2017 at 5:00 AM

At least two recent letters, “Business sees illness in dollar and cents” from Brad Cotton and “2 documents affirm right to health care," from Edward Thomas, have proposed that health care is a human right. The latter letter referred to the Declaration of Independence’s claim that life (and thus health care) are an unalienable right. Such proposals seem impossible as medical science continually finds ways to find new ways to extend lives.

If the proposal is true, at what point will we recognize the unaffordability of life-extending health care for the greater public?

Taken literally, the implied “right” would seem to apply to all, including those irresponsibly conceived and who might be unable to adequately contribute to society to support themselves. Such contribution opportunities shrink due to advances in automation and computers, which reduce the number of humans required to satisfy demands for needed goods and services. Such advances also decrease the number of high-paying jobs.

It should be obvious that conceiving children is not irresponsible, considering the need for future earnings, and this should be emphasized by society.

Another taken-for-granted right is that of infrastructure to provide mobility and enjoyment. An example is New Jersey, which is running out of money for roads, bridges, and transit without gasoline tax increases. The rising costs could at some point exceed what people can afford, and restrict maintenance of transportation infrastructure, and a supposed right to that infrastructure.

Excluding accidents, catastrophes, and inherited or contagious health problems, a right to health care should be earned by an individual, with an ethical responsibility for affordable personal-health habits, by maintaining proper diet and exercise.

Beyond individual and personal ethics, society has a role to disdain blatantly unhealthy vocations which inherently necessitate health-care expenditures. A primary example is coal mining, for which recent revised statistics show the incidence of black lung disease to be greater than previously thought. Phasing out of such vocations should begin with government-sponsored relocation and retraining of underground (and perhaps even surface) miners, for whom lung health care is synonymous with retirement.

This must be done in concert with the phasing out of harmful coal mines, and replacing them with energy sources that aren't as unhealthy for workers.

As populations increase, the right to health care requires that people and society in general be devoted to good health, and that unhealthy vocations are phased out.